Month: December 2006

AN ENNIS Community College student who was picked as part of an elite maths and science team has been sponsered on his trip after an appeal in The Clare People .

Victor Akujobi left this week to go first to Dublin and then to Brazil to represent Ireland in an international science competition.

One of seven children, Victor had travel and accommodation costs taken care of but needed a helping hand with the myriad of other costs involved in going as far as Brazil.

Fifteen-year-old Victor came second out of 150 hand-picked students who sat a series of tests in DCU last month, which challenged them in physics, chemistry and biology.

He qualified as one of a team of six who will head away this Thursday for the Damovo Junior Science Olympiad in San Paulo and stay there until December 12.

After The Clare People ran a piece about Victor’s trip last week, several sponsors stepped up to the mark.

The Community College sponsored their talented young student, as did the staff of ClareCare. Fitgerald McMahon auctioneers also came on board, as did family friends, Stanley and Blessing Njekwe.

Victor’s mother, Doris, said that the family were “delighted. People have been so good and we want to say a big thank you to them.”

Although shy to ask for any more good fortune after her son had been chosen to go, Doris admitted after a colleague contacted The Clare People that there were a lot of extra expenses.

“We are very proud of him and we hope that the team does well over there but it was a great achievement that he was chosen to go,” said Doris.

GARDAÍ are investigating a weekend break-in to Doonbeg post office in which up to €40,000 was stolen.

The raid – the fourth post office robbery in the county over the past 12 months – is being linked to a break-in to a Carrigaholt business premises and the theft of a cattle trailer in Doonbeg, at various stages over the weekend.

Entry to the post office was gained via a back window and the thieves made away with the safe containing the cash. The incident occurred between Saturday evening and Monday morning.

An aluminium cattle trailer was taken from the Kilrush Road in Doonbeg, while equipment, including a trolley jack, angle grinder and sledge hammer, along with a small sum of cash, was taken from a business in Carrigaholt.

According to gardaí, the possibility that the equipment from the Carrigaholt business was used to lift the post office safe into the stolen trailer is being investigated.

“We are not ruling out the possibility that the three crimes might be linked. We are very anxious to locate the cattle trailer. It is a double axle trailer, with a white top, and has ‘Doonbeg Limousines’ written on top,” said a Garda source.

This was the fourth post office raid since November 2005, in a worrying trend which has concerned gardaí and postmasters across the county.

Some €37,000 was stolen from Broadford post office on November 8, 2005. The robbery is believed to have involved several “travelling criminals”.

A large safe, containing the cash, was stolen from the premises. It was later found in an old disused school near Flagmount. Gardaí believe a cattlebox stolen from a farmyard near Cutteen Cross, Tulla, may have been used to transport the safe. A post office in Clarina, Limerick, was also raided around the same time.

Whitegate post office was targeted on January 25 last, when a woman in her forties was tied up and locked in the bathroom of her home, adjacent to the post office.

Three intruders, wearing balaclavas and carrying a baseball bat, broke into her home before tying her up, at around 3.20am. She remained tied up until another family member arrived on the premises shortly after 8am.

The men fled with what gardaí are describing as “a very small sum” of cash, after they failed to gain entry to the safe.

Some €37,000 was stolen in a raid on Liscannor post office, on Thursday, August 10 last. A horse box that was used was later found in Kilaneena. No-one has been charged in relation to any of the robberies.

“All post office safes have time locks and it is important to use them,” said a Garda spokesman.

THE Garda file into the death of a man outside a pub in Kildysart three months ago has been completed and sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Vincent Hehir (32), a father of five, was attacked as he socialised in the village of Kildysart on Sunday night, September 6. He sustained serious injuries.

He remained critically ill in hospital, where his family remained by his bedside. He lost his battle for life three days later.

Gardai say they believe he was subjected to a number of blows, before falling to the ground and hitting the back of his head in the impact. They say they understand he was kicked a number of times to the body, whilst on the ground.

A major garda investigation was launched and more than 100 statements have been made, by people who were in Kildysart on the night Mr Hehir sustained his injuries.

Three local men, aged 21, 23 and 33, were later arrested and questioned at Kilrush Garda Station, before being released without charge.

A post mortem examination was carried out on Mr Hehir’s remains at the Mid Western Regional Hospital, Limerick, which showed that he died as a result of head injuries. At the request of one of the men questioned in connection with the death, an independent autopsy was carried out by Belfast Pathologist Dr Carson.

The Clare People has now learned that the substantial file has now been completed and has just been sent to the DPP’s office for direction. The DPP will decide what charges, if any, are to be brought in the case. This direction is expected to be delivered to Kilrush gardaí within weeks. According to garda sources, a decision may not be made by the DPP until after Christmas.

Mr Hehir had grown up at Glencanane, Kildysart and moved to London some years ago, where he managed a bar in Ilford. He had been home visiting his family for the weekend when the incident occurred.

Meanwhile, the community of Kildysart is continuing to rally around the heartbroken Hehir family.

The local pastoral council have set up a benefit fund for Vincent’s wife Mairead and their five children, Katie (9), Sinead (7), Patricia (6), Molly (3) and baby Margaret, who was baptised in a private ceremony at Vincent’s bedside at Ennis General Hospital. The council hopes to give the money raised to the family in the run-up to Christmas.

There are more children with special needs per head of population awaiting speech therapy services in Clare than anywhere else in the HSE western area.

As many as 453 Clare children are still waiting assessment for the service where early intervention is vital, just one child less than in Galway city and county together.

There are currently 13 speech therapists employed in the county, to cater not just for children but all aged groups including adults and elderly.

Therefore the waiting time for children with special needs is estimated at four months.

Just one therapist is in situ to cater for all children with special needs aged from six to 18.

It emerged this week that there were 4.5 posts vacant for this muchneeded service in the county, despite earlier information published by the HSE West that there were 15 posts filled and 15 vacant.

Three of the 4.5 vacant positions are in the services for children over five years old.

The vacancies are for senior positions to supervise basic service. There are very few senior therapists available to the HSE however.

“A major recruitment drive has been undertaken as part of the development of the primary care service to recruit additional speech and language therapists. It is also proposed to have an international recruitment campaign for speech and language therapists, with a view to filling all vacant positions within the Health Service Executive areas,” the HSE said.

While the HSE is trying to recruit, however, frustrated parents in Clare have taken on the responsibility themselves and have raised money to employ a Canadian therapist to begin a new clinic in Ennis for children with Cerebral Palsey.

Meanwhile, Green Party County Councillor Brian Meaney has described the incorrect, information relating to speech therapy statistics released earlier in the week at the HSE Regional Forum as “an example of an ever increasing lack of accountability.”

The councillor who is one of four Clare representatives on the forum said that after the information was disclosed, he tried to ascertain the accuracy of the information but the system did not allow him to do so.

“This total absence of a good information system means it is impossible to determine an accurate assessment of performance, or lack of, and the significance and scale of shortfalls, problems and difficulties.”

“What measures are being taken to encourage trained therapists back into the service?” he asked.

A CHRISTMAS party turned to tragedy when a mother of two boys died from hypothermia, after she tragically fell and lost consciousness on her way home from a night out in Ennis.

Maria Talbot (42) was returning from her Christmas night out with her colleagues when she lost her footing, a mile from her home at Claremount, Clarecastle, in the early hours of Sunday morning.

She had socialised with her colleagues from Liam Cleary’s garage on Saturday evening. The group of 14 enjoyed a meal at Season’s 52 restaurant, over Charlie Stewart’s pub on Parnell Street. This was followed by drinks in the pub.

Maria, who had looked forward to the night out for several weeks, went to the Queen’s nightclub with some of the group to continue with the Christmas celebrations.

She was seen on CCTV footage, leaving the premises at 1.40am. She made her way up to O’Connell Square in Ennis where she got a taxi, along with two other women.

She was later dropped off and was found by a passer-by, unconscious, on open ground outside a truck testing centre at Lissane, a mile from her home, after 11.30am on Sunday, amid treacherous weather conditions.

She was taken to Ennis General Hospital where she died from hypothermia shortly after 5pm.

Gardaí initially treated the death as suspicious, but ruled out foul play, after Deputy State Pathologist, Dr Michael Curtis, carried out a post mortem examination at Limerick Regional Hospital yesterday.

Maria’s American-born partner Stephen, who works in Shannon, was in the States on a training course and her distraught sons Ryan (18) and Nathan (14) were being comforted by relatives and friends yesterday.

She was separated and her Portlaoise-based husband travelled to Ennis. He and Ryan formally identified her body.

Maria, who is from Dublin, moved to Clare five years ago. She recently celebrated her 42nd birthday and enjoyed her son Ryan’s 18th birthday just last week.

Maria worked at Cleary’s garage for the past six months.